Why is there a limit on the number of Channel Bans?

All IRC networks have a limit on the maximum number of bans that a channel may have in place at any given time. Most networks, including WyldRyde, have this limit set at 60 bans or 2,048 bytes, whichever is reached first.

This limit is in place to ensure the stable performance of the network during attacks. It is trivial to make servers unstable or crash on networks that have raised their ban limits.

In any case, since most ISPs assign a dynamic IP address that changes frequently, it's pointless keeping a ban in place that's over a few days old. Banning an entire ISP typically isn't practical and banning just by a nick isn't very affective either. Combining a nick and a partial IP or hostmask address might be more affective but no matter how you look at it, keeping someone banned will usually take some manual effort by the channel operators until the banned user gets tired of evading and getting re-banned.

With this in mind experienced ops clear out the ban list at least every day. In many chats on WyldRyde, including Chris Pirillo's, the bans are automatically removed after three hours! So the limit of 60 is never reached.

It's worth noting that we have increased the maximum number of AKICKs to 64 in order to help automate resetting bans on someone that you may want banned permanently. This is most affectively used by using a ban mask that contains a combination of the user's nick and IP or hostmask. e.g. nick*!*@*.ga.comcast.net. But just like channel bans, a persistent troll could find ways to get around these and will have to be manually re-banned until they tire of it.